Board to Death Ep. 8 - Troy Van Leeuwen (Queens of the Stone Age, Gone is Gone)

The Evil has landed. We caught up with Queens of the Stone Age guitarist and lap steel player Troy Van Leeuwen to take a look at his multi-amp setup combining the best of modern signal routing with the immediacy of old-school, “pedals on the floor” plug-and-play rock and roll raunchiness.
Troy’s rig uses two Rainbow Machines (one on the floor and one in the rack) for a tight, dry room sound to give his guitar its own place in the mix. Also on his board is a Tentacle analog octave, which Troy uses to give his single coil pickups some extra upper harmonic pop. “The Tentacle, for me, is one of the best pedals because there’s one setting: on or off,” he says.
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[@evanlecarde281]

TVL is the kind of player you want at your back. He knows exactly what's needed and hot to fill in the gaps. He really frees JH to move away from the riff when he needs to.

[@BK-je7ww]

Those cats in Queens all have such impeccable taste in gear. What a great video!

[@EarthQuakerDevices]

thanks for watching!

[@philipreedwallace]

There awesome.

[@scarletmagnum]

The La Croix bit killed me. 🤣🤣🤣

[@sachindevaraj]

"I'm not like a great lapsteel player but I can make alotta noise"... so modest

[@sanchopp]

He is a magician. I love this guitarist.

[@turdferguson9190]

No, he is a wizard...

[@derkabronen]

"Why not" ! that's the best reason so far I heard for having many many pedals

[@ryangunwitch-black]

Troy just thinks he's sooooo cool. (I mean, he IS and probably doesn't actually know it, which is evinced by how chill and humble he always seems.).

[@rckstr1123]

Are we just going to ignore the killer Motörhead set list in Troy's guitar boat?

[@dimitricabral]

i dit not ignore this! :D

[@SummersPep]

they played together a lot...

[@TheRover1977]

I was front row at this show! Directly in front of Troy, I also got to meet Josh after the show by the bus - absolutely killer night. Thanks for the video! This is awesome seeing more footage from that amazing night.

[@jhartbby4908]

more of all things queens please

[@EarthQuakerDevices]

watch this space

[@MikeTaffet]

Yeah! I was at the Agora show! Freakin epic! Even got Troy to sign my guitar

[@EarthQuakerDevices]

Dude! Such a killer show. Congrats on the autograph!

[@joeyfranco7950]

That double neck shook me to the core

[@delivrance3961]

always class and good taste!

[@JamesPery]

The Rainbow machine is like a secret weapon. can't wait to get it on my pedal board!

[@bengalvin9932]

EVERYBODY NEEDS TO CHECK OUT! the yamaha troy van leeuwen signature model guitar it is not made any more i had one in the dark red and sold it! and pretty cheap too! GOD DAMN IT! very cool guitar!!

[@matutegarcia8604]

Just perfect, the best for the best!!!

[@EarthQuakerDevices]

thanks for watching!

[@pedalfiles4441]

Troy has been a busy dude. Gone Is Gone, QOTSA, Reverb Interviews, and now some EQD stuff. How does he have the time!?!?

[@millyaron6437]

PEDAL FILES and Chelsea Wolfe

[@pedalfiles4441]

How could I forget!? and thats just the stuff we know of... who knows what else that slippery two toned mammal is up to.

[@sometimelater]

jane’s addiction, the damned, a perfect circle

[@tarkenton3895]

The Armed!

[@tat5383]

At 1:37 I thought he said “all the pedals are in Iraq” I thought what are they doing there???

[@pedalfiles4441]

I see that he traded the line 6 dl4 delay for the boss space echo. Good move my friend.

[@Tury1799]

I really loved his guitar playing in A Perfect Circle-Mer de Noms

[@coupdegraceband8559]

Kickass! We were raging out at this show at the Agora! EQD & QOTSA Rock!

[@EarthQuakerDevices]

Whoa! We were raging too! Rage! 🤘🤘

[@Alex-jq5ft]

holy shit i did not expect the la croix gag

[@elephantricity]

La Croix, the ultimate musicians beverage of choice. See Andrew Forsman of The Fall of Troy. Its also great that earth quaker are such nerds that they all care about what other companies pedals good musicians are rocking..

[@EarthQuakerDevices]

Totally! Pedals aren't some kind of PC vs. Mac thing... it's okay to mix and match. (Mac all the way, FYI)

[@djohnson2499]

Loving the Used Kids Records shirt

[@BellePhoenixTheSubterraneanSea]

The Tentacle! I want it!

[@eph_kni]

the EQD La Croix (pamplemousse edition) is SUCH a good deal. Waaaaaay better choice than those vintage, over priced seltzers

[@dbeardsleyor]

Plus it’s transparent

[@faunaflage]

1:10 - I used to have that same Peavey head. I know he's using it for his dry channel, but it comes with an amazing fuzz built in. Really smooth breakup, single knob..

[@raviolitrail]

He needs to check out your fuzz pedals too. I have the Spires and it is amazing.

[@iwillnevergetone5]

i bet he’d be willing to talk more about the Echopark side of things now that it looks like he’s not nailed down by fender anymore. i could be wrong tho

[@Zilla__man]

He is who I want to be

[@RDembowski]

0:30 You're damn right

[@mx1mx113]

❤❤❤

[@HammerRichmanMusic]

The La Croix just killed me.

[@MrJyetter]

Can any one tell what its on the gainstage drawer? Besides his signature Dr. Nos

[@JcGrubbsFilms]

Spotted that Used Kids Records shirt 🙏

[@EarthQuakerDevices]

Columbus, Ohio's finest!

[@JcGrubbsFilms]

EarthQuakerDevices - Damn straight

[@joshmcderp5607]

Time to get a rainbow machine

[@shoegazer1298]

👊

[@EarthQuakerDevices]

👊

[@surrenderpark]

What about noise gates or suppressor, are those rack stuff or stomp boxes in the racks ? How do they manage noise? Thank you

[@gpiad]

MXR CUSTOM SHOP DUAL 90? What's that? New phaser?

[@ShiningTrapezoid]

What's he doing with that AxeFX?

[@olfhering]

3:22 Motörhead Setlist!

[@zgamer1154]

I flipped when I saw that

[@xSGTxPEPPERx]

Just noticed! I’m lucky to have one very similar signed by the man himself!

[@longshot789]

Best Dressed!

[@jasperbrieschke771]

what does til use the mini marshall cab at 3:33 for?

[@SonidoPrimordial]

what ehx pedal is that: 4:02

[@snackweight]

Double neck all the way!

[@ChiliPumpTheFunk]

EQD!

[@tommorris2771]

Saw queens live and this dude was hawking hella lugis into the crowd. I threw a full ass beer pretty close to the stage 2 times and when I saw security coming I threw my shoe lmao. I left peacefully

[@KalosPVP]

Someone who owns a Holiest Grail besides myself!

[@JJ-bf6dx]

Travelling with all this gear must be nerve racking

[@deadlegs187]

Hey! What does he mean by dry and wet? Thanks

[@EarthQuakerDevices]

Hi! Dry is your instrument's unaffected sound and wet is your instrument's sound with the effect applied to it. In this scenario he has his signal split into two amps, one of which is for effects. With a setup like this, you can blend the overall effects level to taste with your raw guitar tone. It sounds huge. Try it! Thank you for watching

[@deadlegs187]

@@EarthQuakerDevices thanks for the clear answer. :)

[@JohnDoe-dh8xc]

I don't understand his use of rainbow machines

[@EarthQuakerDevices]

With all the knobs at noon, the Rainbow Machine is basically a chorus. By adjusting the Tracking knob, you can offset/delay the effect from the dry signal, so you get a slightly modulated slapback that borders on a "small room" style reverb. It's a neat trick!

[@JohnDoe-dh8xc]

EarthQuakerDevices Ah I see, I have mines set to a bit more lush of a chorus and a quicker slapback

[@pedalfiles4441]

That is totally the sweet spot with that pedal

[@lolekebaben]

If you listen to domesticated animals live on youtube you can hear how he uses it. kind of an chorus/slapback/metalic sort of thing. sounds really cool.

[@tommymccracken487]

I have basically all my knobs fully cranked except tracking and tone, and the exp pedal makes it more insane. no thanks, subtle! haha. Magic=always on

[@Rbastid]

I fully suspect in the middle of the peddle board he uses when playing with Gone is Gone he just has a picture of Smiling Josh Homme.

[@hammerheadduck]

1:24 my whole life explained

[@user-hq8mx7mn3u]

I thought the title meant that he left the band

[@EarthQuakerDevices]

QOTSA and Gone is Gone are two separate bands

[@sailorkid7522]

how is la Croix pronounced? I pronounce it "la crotch"

[@EarthQuakerDevices]

"cräh"

[@sailorkid7522]

@@EarthQuakerDevices thanks guys :)

[@hickorymccay2994]

I say "la croy"

[@christianadrian28]

I’m mad asf cause I was supposed to go to that Cleveland show but I didn’t

[@EarthQuakerDevices]

bummer

[@philspill6854]

I was stage right

[@vs5617]

Sooooooo, I have like 50 bucks, what do I need to get first?......

[@EarthQuakerDevices]

a job

[@kyle8442]

V S a job

[@Les537]

Weed.

[@brianrodman1033]

More money...

[@blumeattempt9805]

@@EarthQuakerDevices hahaha, I have only 2 of your pedals but this answer deserve buy a third one.

[@hammerheadduck]

“I’m not a great lap steel player” WHY TROY YOU ARE LYING

[@Shoeg4zer]

Failure!

[@EarthQuakerDevices]

Yep, thats the guy. Thanks for watching!

[@ericportillo8277]

Someone make a delay pedal called De'Layla

[@fredward7476]

12 string Tele...jajaja.

[@scottallen9556]

Okay, I'm officially pissed off that Josh Homme appears to all but refuse to even discuss his Guitars/gear. He has a signature Maton and a truly unique approach to everything we want to see. There is no possible way for anyone to steal his style or sound. Seems to be a very pretentious move by someone who portrays himself as the coolest "I don't give a shit" kind of guy.

[@EarthQuakerDevices]

Josh talked about this in a Guitar World interview published Sep. 7, 2017: "For years I kept most of my recording techniques a secret, and for some reason, I feel like all of that doesn’t matter now. I didn’t want to take somebody’s journey away by telling them what I did. But everyone has their own secrets in their world, and it’s also cool to share some of them." So maybe one day the secret will be revealed?

[@EarthQuakerDevices]

Also, Josh is the coolest, and he does not give a shit. That is true.

[@_KingOfCalifornia]

josh is about being original, if he were to give us all the secrets, a lot of new bands would sound the same... so be original

[@themaryveils6382]

Whatever you doooooooooooooo, don't tell anyone...

[@JcGrubbsFilms]

Just watch his episode of Guitar Moves. You’ll be more than satisfied. As long as you want to see him profusely sweating and high, which is really his ultimate form

[@crypttonite]

would not want to be on a level with pedals racked & a tech. it’s no longer folk music it’s some product calling itself rock n roll. r n r is like mother nature bigger than people